Stuntman Jack Gill Reveals the Secrets of FAST FIVE
Exclusive interview by Marc Anthony
“We are just glad Fast Five is doing so well. For a while there when we were doing all those things with the vault, I was just hoping everybody survives this thing.” — Jack Gill
Computer graphics have been used by Hollywood to enhance stunts that are impossible to do by people. Then in recent memory, it seemed to be hot for CGI to be a dominant medium for stunts, but it was not organic.
Enter the stuntman and the stunt coordinator who can construct an idea of fantastical action (stunts that captivate the audience) onto the screen with a much more organic feel. Jack Gill is such a man, who first started doing stunts in a 1971 movie called “GATOR,” then later a stunt driver for THE FALL GUY, and THE DUKES OF HAZZARD. He would later become the stunt coordinator for many episodes of the very popular TV series KNIGHT RIDER. This is but a short list of the vast experience Jack has amassed as a premier stunt man and stunt Coordinator. Recent work also includes: stunt work in TRUE BLOOD, THE OTHER GUYS, and THE GREEN HORNET.
RSR talked with Jack Gill and got his thoughts on the now infamous bank vault scene in FAST FIVE, which he helped coordinate.
MA: How much was digital and how much was real in the movie FAST FIVE?
The good part about this movie is Justin Lin has done two other “Fast and Furious” before and he was unhappy with the CGI in the last one with the car work. He said: “I want to go back to how cars really react and if you can’t do it real then I just don’t want to put it in my film.” So we started really testing how far we can go wrecking cars and doing it real, because the audience wants to feel they are in the driver’s seat.
When we started designing the vault and we figured out it weighed ten tons, I just said let’s put cars out there and let the thing tear them apart. We usually score cars (we cut them apart to make them break apart a little easier) on this thing…we never had to do any of that. So, it’s probably 98% all real wrecks, real cars, real vault, and the only 2% is CG that added some background for us when it was raining and we had skies that were dark and cloudy. I think they fixed that, and they put some sparks on the bottom of the vault when it was sliding.
Other than that it’s a real vault and real cars crashing.
MA: The cars really were able to pull the vault?
Yeah, we started out how big we wanted to make the vault and we wanted to get it right on the edge to where it took two cars to get this thing moving. And one of the heavy sliding vaults that we had almost weighed ten tons. I had to put Delrin, it’s a really heavy duty plastic.
I stuck it on the bottom edge of the vaults so it slides a little easier and it took both cars at full throttle. Once you got it moving it was fine but to try to get it started! We had two chargers that were four wheel drive cars and they could pull it really good once you got it moving. It’s just stopping it. When you said “cut” it was a big deal to try to gather that thing up before it destroys things you didn’t want it to hit.
MA: With the demand of stunts getting more extreme, how dangerous has it become?
It is really dangerous and that’s one of the things that the studios are very aware of. We do have an added part to it because if you are going to do it real, you do have people in harm’s way. We had a lot of stunt people on the sidewalks and we had a lot of stunt people in the bank, which you saw that thing go through the bank.
You just have to be real careful about the guidelines. We had at least four weeks of testing out in the parking lot with these orange pylons set up to see just where we could put the safe. And the two drivers that I had in the car got to where they were really good about being able to swing the safe out and put in on marks and get it back in behind the car.
MA: Did anyone get hurt?
We had our share of bumps and bruises which is what you are going to have on this kind of show. Luckily nobody really got really seriously hurt. I had one of my motorcycle guys that popped his shoulder out, but he went to the hospital and they popped right back in and came right back to me.
MA: Is this something you get used to?
Yeah, you kind of get used to having bumps and bruises and stuff like that. You just hope you don’t get anything broken. That takes a long time to fix.
MA: What does it take to be a stunt man?
A lot of it is sheer common sense because we have a lot of guys who are really good athletes but they just don’t have enough common sense to figure out what really happens on the set. Things change all the time. You have different things that happen during a big stunt and you have to be able to make a decision in what you are going to do. That decision may react to other people lives, so I think common sense is a big part of it.
Obviously you have to be athletically inclined, you have to have a good timing sense but I think the major aspect of it is just having common sense of knowing when to say: “Hey, wait one minute guys we need to rethink this because this could happen.”
MA: Do you feel that FAST FIVE and its car scene set the bar for other action movies?
Yeah, I really do. I have done a lot of big action movies and I have never really thought that we were ever going to be able to set the bar for everybody else. But when we started getting into production with Fast Five, they were so open to anything that we wanted to do. We just started pulling out all of our thinking caps and said: “Let’s do something that nobody has ever seen before and let’s make it real!” If it’s CG, the audience is going know it is CG. So let’s do real effects, real stunts, real stunt guys jumping out of the way and real crashes and hopefully that will pay off.” And I think it really did. The audience really likes being in the driver seat.
MA: How would someone get started in stunt work?
There are a lot of different avenues. One of the ways that seems to be the fastest way to get in now: to be really good at one particular thing that we need. I have seen guys come in for that. Like if you have a guy who does a double back flip on a motorcycle, there are just not too many guys that do it, and you bring in that guy do to the double back flip on a motorcycle next thing you know he has his screen actors guild card and he is working as a stunt guy.
Now, the normal route is: come out here and try to learn all the different aspects of the stunt business by learning to drive motorcycles, cars, learning to ride horses, you have to learn fights, fire, high fall, and all different types of ratchets and cable rigs we have because cable rigs have become a big part of the business. Once you get very well rounded then you try and go out and just get to know everybody and try to help the guys on the set for no money at all. Just get on the set and watch other people do it and try to learn that way. When you are learning, hopefully someone will give you a shot at it.
MA: What has been the most dangerous stunt for you?
There have been a lot of really dangerous ones. There was a film years ago called “The Exterminator” and Robert Ginty was the star and I was still young. They called me up and told me it was a Vietnam film and you are running at the top of this hill and there is a drop of about 85 feet off this cliff. As you are running, these airplanes come in and drop napalm. We are going have this big gasoline explosion that blows you off the cliff and you fly through the air and drip 85 feet onto an air bag, all at night.
When I got involved in it, I said I really got to look at this. I don’t know if we can actually even do this. They said they had six other stunt guys turn this down so you are our seventh guy. Tell us if you can do it or not. I kept looking and looking at it. I ended up doing it and got the stunt down but I don’t think I would ever do it again: Thirteen gallons of gasoline going off on top of the cliff with you six feet away from it? It’s like nothing you could ever think of. My clothes were on fire. I was dropping through the air and they had two more eight gallons of gasoline that went off on the side of the cliff as I dropped. I never even saw the air bag. I just rehearsed running off the end as fast as I could to get to the air bag. Once I was in the air, I just hoped. I just guessed right.
MA: Have you been seriously hurt before?
Yeah, if you are ever in this business and doing big stunts you are going get hurt. There is just no way around it. I have broken my back twice, my neck once and I have broken every knee and ankle that I have…maybe two or three times each. I have torn my finger off completely and I had to get that sewn back on. I have a steel plate on my neck; it’s a titanium plate that is six inches long that has six screws in it. I have plates and screws on my left wrist. God, I guess I have broken my right shoulder five times and my left shoulder twice. It’s one of those things you get used to but you just hope you never bite the big one, that you can survive each and every one.
MA: What projects are you working on currently?
I have a show called “Stunts Unlimited,” which is an organization that I belong to. We are 52 members of the most elite stunt men in the world. We have a series coming out on the SYFY channel and I am going be part of that TV series. We are just now getting ready to shoot the pilot and after I do that, I am going go on to Total Recall, which is a remake of the original Total Recall. We are going to shoot in Toronto.
Yeah, I am going drive one of the hover cars. We are going have fun with that.
MA: Stunts Unlimited SYFY channel is shooting when?
We are going shoot this in about two weeks and half.
MA: Have they given you guys a timeslot they plan on showing this?
They haven’t told us yet. We are going shoot the pilot, and then we see where they are going to put it in there schedule.
MA: Do you see a trend to use real stunts rather than CG in film?
Yeah it really is. It seems to be with the last four or five shows that I have done, every Director wants to go back to the real world. Not even including stunts, obviously there are situations with Sci-Fi type movies where you just don’t have that ability to put them in your futuristic world but when you are talking about the real day in age and something you can create, and most Directors now want to go back to the real thing. With us, it really means a lot because the cars and motorcycles react differently in the CG world. It starts to get just a little bit over the top. Most cars and motorcycles just don’t do. I am glad we are turning around a little bit and going back to what cars and motorcycles really do in the real world.
MA: When you watch reality shows, are you critiquing and thinking it is set up?
I hate to say it but most reality shows are set up. And I hope most of America knows that. They are entertaining to watch. They are train wrecks but at Stunts Unlimited we get calls every time from reality shows. Hey something happened on set and we didn’t capture it on camera but we can’t have these guys do it because they are not pros…can you guys come out and recreate it for us? And we will come out and shoot it for them.
MA: Is “Stunts Unlimited” available to do stunts all over the world?
Yes we are all over; you can go to StuntsUnlimited.com and see the website and all the members.
MA: Any final thoughts?
We are just glad Fast Five is doing so well. For a while there, when we were doing all those things with the vault, I was just hoping everybody survives this thing.
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